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Raffle for a Cure! Nerd style :-) Now bigger than ever!

All the different prize options in a pile!

Hello, dear pond readers! I am doing something new in my pond in an effort to save my brain from multiple sclerosis. I was diagnosed in 2013 and I’ve written about it a little bit in another post, if you want to check that out. I am doing a raffle of handcrafted items to raise money for Walk MS-Waukesha to benefit the Wisconsin chapter of the National MS society.

Here are the directions: look through the items pictured below and decide for which of the twelve prize option(s) you would like to buy a virtual raffle ticket. UPDATE:All raffle tickets are now $2 per entry! You still have to specify which drawing(s) you want to put your donation toward by copying the comment text with each option, but there is no longer variation in price. If you already donated, fantastic, you just get more entries per prize option drawing than you initially thought you would. Also, I will always round up so if you donated an odd sort of number I will round up the number of entries you have. To buy a raffle ticket, go to my personal fundraising page, hit “Donate to Me,” donate in the ticket increment you want, fill out your full contact information, and, in the comment section, copy the text that corresponds to the desired item option(s) below. Your information is confidential, will not be sold, and will not be used for any nefarious purpose. Your full contact information of at least a name and an e-mail address is needed to contact you in the event that you win and so I can mail any item(s) you won. If you want to opt out of being contacted by the National MS society, there is a way for you to do that when you donate. I won’t contact you either beyond one thank-you-for-being-amazing note. All donations are tax-deductible in the United States. I have no idea if they are tax-deductible in other countries but you will get the same warm, fuzzy feeling of being amazing no matter what nation you hale from, if you donate to my fundraising.

My plan is to print out little squares of paper donation entries based on the donations, put them in a zippy bag for each prize option, and then, the day after the walk on September 21st, film a drawing of names and post that video here on the pond. Winners will be e-mailed and shipment arranged after the drawing. I will mail items at my own cost in the most economic fashion, which will probably be USPS first class, but, we’ll see, this is all new to me. People can definitely have their names in more than once for each raffle option and have their names in for multiple options but, your donation has to add up to that many virtual raffle tickets and you have to have the comment text for each option you want to have a chance at winning.

For example: Jane Smith really likes the pincushions, the Star Trek scarf, and the reading quillow. Jane wants at least two tickets for each option. When Jane donates, being sure to include her e-mail address, jane.smith@fictional.com, she donates $35 (35/2 =17.5, ~18, 18/3=6 entries per drawing!) and copies all three lines of comment text, so her comment box says: I am a Technicolorlilypond SEWIST nerd for a cure! I am a Technicolorlilypond READING nerd for a cure! I am a Technicolorlilypond STAR TREK nerd for a cure! And, just like that, she has paid for six entries in each of those three prize option categories and she will have the satisfaction of knowing that she has made a tax-deductible donation to help rid the world of multiple sclerosis. On the day of the drawing, Jane’s name will be in each pool six times, increasing her odds of being the lucky person to receive the nerdy item in the post. See how amazing that is? Together, all of this will add up to making the world a better place for lot of people who are really hoping that people like you will help fund scientific research into curing them of multiple sclerosis. That is some pretty amazing stuff.

Time for prize option pictures! As you can see, some options have multiple items whereas others have one. The way I envision this is that as an example, for the pincushion raffle there are four pincushions that you can potentially win. I will have one pool of pincushion entries and will draw names from the pool four times, once for each pincushion. I hope that that makes sense. I know that that means you might not win the exact item you want but, hopefully you know somebody in your life who would like that item and you’ll be ahead on your unbirthday shopping.

You may start donating and get your name in the pool today. All donations that include the comment text from this blog post will be eligible for the raffle drawing until 12 PM CT on Monday September 21st, 2015. On the 21st, I will film myself drawing the names, post the video, contact the winners, and thank everyone who donated. If you do choose to donate, please leave a comment below. Thank you all for spreading the word to your friends. Should you have any questions about any of the options or the Walk, please leave the question below and I’ll do my best to answer. Thank you, dear readers, for reading all of this. Your readership and support mean so much to me.

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5 thoughts on “Raffle for a Cure! Nerd style :-) Now bigger than ever!”

I have to say that it is pretty darn amazing that, even though nobody has left any comments, this blog post has been shared 45 times on FB and 2 times on Twitter. No other post of mine has gotten so many shares, people must be trying to help. I’m really excited that more people are going to know about multiple sclerosis without having to hear it from a doctor and that together we can find a way to a cure someday. Go, nerds!

I did the drawing yesterday and will contact all the winners later tonight. I did film the drawing but that turned into a more complicated thing than I thought it would be. I will hopefully post it tonight. Thank you again, everyone! 🙂